Alicia Quella, associate professor and program director of the Augsburg University Physician Assistant program.

Augsburg Associate Professor and Physician Assistant Program Director Alicia Quella has received an AAPA-PAEA Inaugural Research Fellowship. This new fellowship program is sponsored by the American Academy of Physician Assistants and the Physician Assistant Education Association. Each fellow’s institution will receive a grant of up to $25,000, which will allow recipients to focus on one of a number of research topics developed by the fellowship’s organizers. Quella also was awarded an AAPA Global Health grant in 2015.

Kirsten Delegard and other Mapping Prejudice researchers talk with KARE 11 about their project.

In a conversation with KARE 11 Reporter Adrienne Broaddus, Kirsten Delegard, Augsburg University scholar-in-residence and director of the Mapping Prejudice project, discussed the lasting impact of historically discriminatory housing policies in Minneapolis.

“People think that because we didn’t have segregated water fountains or waiting rooms that we didn’t have segregation in Minneapolis,” she said, “but racial covenants determined who could live where … We are still living with the legacy of these policies. We can point to all kinds of disparities especially in area of home ownership that we are living with today because of these polices enforced over the last century.”

The Mapping Prejudice project, once complete, will be the first comprehensive map of racial covenants for a U.S. city. Watch the KARE 11 report about the project.

Under the Mapping Prejudice Project, scholars from the University of Minnesota and Augsburg University have analyzed over 1.4 million historic Minneapolis housing deeds, finding racist language in more 20,000 documents. These racial covenants forbidding the sale of property to people of color are no longer legally enforceable, but researchers hope documenting this side of the city’s history will influence urban planning in years to come.

This article describes the methods that the Mapping Prejudice researchers use to conduct their work and discusses the motivations for the project with project director and Augsburg scholar-in-residence Kirsten Delegard.

The research group plans to map Minneapolis by the end of 2017 and all of Hennepin County next year.

Screen shot of a time-progression map showing the growth of racially restrictive real estate covenants in the early 20th century.

Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow talks with the Star Tribune’s Randy Furst about how the Augsburg House — and much of South Minneapolis — were once governed by discriminatory housing policies. While the historical covenants are no longer legally binding, Augsburg is seeking a method to nullify the prohibition while still preserving the historical record, “so that we never lose sight of the actions that have segregated and repressed many,” Pribbenow said.

The findings about residential properties in South Minneapolis are part of the Mapping Prejudice project, led by a team of researchers from Augsburg and the University of Minnesota. For more information about the project, see Mapping Prejudice. Go to the Star Tribune article for information about other South Minneapolis homes, a perspective from a Minneapolis real estate lawyer, and an interactive map showing the growth of racially restrictive deeds across Minneapolis from 1910 to 1955.

The AugSTEM Scholars Program, funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, supports students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The scholars participated in Zyzzogeton, a celebration of student research.

The National Science Foundation awarded Augsburg College a highly competitive $1 million grant for continued support of the AugSTEM Scholars Program. Under the direction of Professor Rebekah Dupont, the program will provide scholarships to as many as 80 academically talented students with financial need who are pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The four-year grant is part of NSF’s work to address the need for a high-quality, diverse workforce. With a traditional undergraduate student body that is more than 35 percent persons of color, Augsburg is well positioned to support this goal. The program provides direct financial support, delivers hands-on learning, offers research opportunities, and pairs each student with a faculty mentor. Research shows this combination of hands-on learning and close mentorship is highly effective in helping students leave college ready for graduate school and the workplace.

Editor’s Note: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. 1565060 and 1154096. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Matthew Beckman, assistant professor of biology, joined his research collaborators Grant Two Bulls and Amy Myrbo in writing a commentary for the Star Tribune that voiced support for renaming Minneapolis’ Lake Calhoun. As the commentary noted, recent events have initiated a debate regarding whether the lake should return to its original name in the Dakota language: Mde Maka Ska.

Beckman, Two Bulls, and Myrbo conducted research during summer 2014 that involved taking a core sample of lake sediment and studying its pollen content as a way to examine the ecological record of an early-19th-century Dakota agricultural village on its shore. This geological study of the lake showed a long history of Native American natural resource stewardship that extended centuries before the arrival of surveyors backed by John C. Calhoun, the lake’s namesake.

“Music is more than organized sound; it can be a message from the heart of humanity,” according to Robert Stacke, Augsburg College associate professor of music. “Music can motivate a population in a manner that words alone cannot do. It is a powerful tool that can inspire political action and send its message to the world.”

Augsburg College’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO) provides summer research grants for students interested in professional study. Students further classroom learning with critical thinking and thoughtful analysis through faculty-led research that complements their degree programs.

The annual Master of Arts in Leadership Colloquium presents an opportunity to learn about the research MAL students have conducted as part of the final requirement for their graduate studies program. The colloquium will be held Wednesday, June 6 at 5:30 p.m. in Oren Gateway Center.

The colloquium highlights different aspects of leadership from a variety of corporate and nonprofit settings. Students are encouraged to research topics which they themselves have faced in the workplace. A member of the Augsburg faculty advises each student’s project from the creation of the hypothesis to the final paper. Continue reading “MAL colloquium highlights graduate research”→